And a mighty king shall stand up that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.
The chapter has been tracing the kings of Persia. Now one man steps forward whose rule answers to nobody. Who is he, why is a Hebrew prophet following Greek politics, and where does a will with no limits end?
Kelly links the king of this verse to a figure Daniel had already seen in an earlier vision.
In verse 3, Persia, the ram of Daniel 8, drops out, and we find the he-goat of that chapter, or more exactly its horn… This is Alexander.
The verse also skips a great deal of history.
Every reader of history knows the crushing defeat of Xerxes' mixed army, and Alexander's later invasion and conquest of his kingdom. Daniel 8:7 refers to it. Verse 3 passes it over, and Alexander, as a "mighty king," is brought in at once.
"Great dominion" came quickly. Dennett shows how quickly, and who stood behind it.
His campaigns moved at striking speed, and the vision describes it well: "a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground." In about ten years he conquered almost all the kingdoms of the then known world… By God's appointment the Persian empire had reached its end, and the kingdom He had destined to follow it was now to gain the supremacy. The battles of Issus and Arbela were decisive because God was using Alexander "the Great" to carry out His purposes for the government of the earth.
Why does the Bible track Greek kings at all? Kelly points to God's fixed reference point on earth.
When God speaks of things upon the earth, He always measures from Israel, because Israel is His earthly centre.
When his empire split up, Judea was caught in the middle.
Daniel had described, in few words, the character of the "mighty king" and the break-up of his kingdom, "divided toward the four winds of heaven" (Dan. 11:3). This was an event of great political importance to Judea. The land found itself fought over by the king of the South, Egypt, and the king of the North, Syria — and it will be so again in a later day.
Kelly puts this chapter in a class of its own.
Our chapter is historical — the only really and truly historical prophecy in the word of God. Though there are breaks in the history, the main features are given here more clearly than by any human historian writing later.
Critics have used that accuracy against the book: no prophecy, they say, could be this exact. Even a historian who did not believe it admitted how much the chapter gets right.
The four empires stand out clearly: the expedition of Xerxes into Greece; the rapid conquest of Persia by Alexander; his early death without descendants; the division of his monarchy into four kingdoms, one of which, Egypt, is named… All of it is as clear as the histories of Justin and Diodorus. From so perfect a likeness the crafty unbeliever would conclude that both alike were written after the event.
William Kelly, quoting Gibbon
The same words come back later in the chapter, about the king of verses 36-39. Hole draws out what a will with no limits amounts to.
Verses 36-39 predict what this "king" will do, and the leading feature is this: he "shall do as he wills." Now sin is lawlessness. It is the creature breaking loose from the control of the Creator, to assert and carry out its own will.
Yet the first man to hold such power did not keep it long. Darby names who stopped him.
Alexander crossed most of Asia and pushed as far as India. He proved his ability not only as a general but as the founder of a solid empire. But God laid His hand upon him.
- Named. The mighty king here is Alexander. Daniel had already seen him as the horn of the goat that overthrew Persia.
- Granted. His "great dominion" was real and swift — most of the known world in about ten years. God used it to carry out His purposes for the earth.
- Measured. God records these Greek affairs because He measures earth's events from Israel. Judea was soon caught between the kingdoms his empire left behind.
- Verified. This chapter is history written in advance. It is so exact that unbelievers argue it must have been written afterwards.
- Warned. Doing as one wills is lawlessness, and it marks the king of verses 36-39. The first man to hold that power was stopped by God's hand.
And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of the heavens; but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion wherewith he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside these.
Verse 3 names a "mighty king" at the height of his power. This verse tells what happens the moment he stands up: his empire breaks apart, splits four ways, and passes to strangers instead of to his children.
Commentators identify the king as Alexander the Great. The break came at full strength, not in decline.
Alexander did indeed come from the west like one whose feet never touched the ground. In the fury of his power he ran at the Persian empire, which until then had been mighty and had pushed west, north, and south. Yet in the strangest and saddest way Alexander's course was cut short. He died as a young man of thirty-two, in the middle of plans that reached far beyond those of all who went before him. And his generals began, as they often do, to fight one another over which of them should have the largest share of the broken Macedonian or Greek empire, since one man could not inherit it all.
The scattering "toward the four winds of heaven" settled into four kingdoms. One writer ties this to the four-headed leopard of Daniel's earlier vision and names the four men.
Daniel tells us also that the leopard had four heads. These, as Daniel 8:8-22 and 11:4 tell us, are the four military leaders — not Alexander's descendants — who divided his dominions among themselves after his death. Their names were Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus.
The verse closes off the family line. Strangers take over instead.
Then we learn, as earlier visions already showed, that Alexander's dominion would be split into four distinct kingdoms. These would not descend to his posterity; strangers would rule them. We know all this came true when four of Alexander's generals divided his dominion between them.
Another writer adds how short the whole thing lasted. He quotes the verse's phrase about Alexander's authority in an older wording:
History records how brief Alexander's dominion was. He died when still young, and four of his generals divided his kingdom between them, just as verse 4 clearly foretells. Their powers, however, were far more limited and "not according to his dominion."
One writer draws out what the wording rules out. He then explains why the chapter follows only two of the four parts.
It was not to be a single head getting rid of the family of Alexander and taking possession of all. His kingdom was to be divided into several parts, four in particular; and out of these four divisions two acquire an immense importance. But what makes them so important here? When God speaks of things on the earth, He always measures from Israel, because Israel is His earthly centre.
Those two lay on either side of the land of Israel:
From verse 5 onward we follow the doings of two of these four: the king of the south and the king of the north. If we ask why the prophecy concentrates on these two only, the answer surely is that only these two meddled with and oppressed the Jews back in the land. Their kingdoms were north and south of Palestine — what we should now call Syria and Egypt — and the first kings were Seleucus and Ptolemy.
The exactness of the verse has become an argument against it. One historian, no friend of the Bible, listed the details and drew his own conclusion:
Gibbon, the sceptical historian, says in his sneering way that Daniel "is too exact for a prophet." "The four empires are clearly outlined ... Alexander's untimely death without descendants; the division of his monarchy into four kingdoms, one of which, Egypt, is mentioned by name... From such a perfect resemblance the clever unbeliever would infer that both alike were composed after the event."
Another writer answers that argument directly, and points out the cost of it:
The devout believer in the inspired word of God will not need to be told that this is an accurate description in every detail of what took place at the death of Alexander. It is so accurate, indeed, that the unbeliever can only account for it by claiming it was written after the event! ... And who is the loser? Surely the man who, in the pride of his imagined self-sufficiency, shuts his eyes against the light.
- Broken at the peak. The king is cut off at thirty-two, in the middle of plans larger than any before him. Strength guarantees nothing.
- Broken into four. The empire scatters toward the four winds and settles as four kingdoms. Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysimachus take them — the leopard's four heads.
- Broken from his heirs. Nothing goes to his family. Strangers rule instead, and their power is far more limited than his.
- Narrowed to two. Of the four, the prophecy follows only the kings of the north and south. Those two touched Israel, and God measures history on earth from Israel, His centre.
- Exact on purpose. Sceptics date the book late because it is so exact. That exactness shows the future lies open before God.